S1 Episode 8: Bugs

Are you ready for some creepy crawlies? Do you want to see people escape an old curse? If so, welcome to another episode review of the Supernatural series.

In this episode, the opening scene shows two men working at a construction site. New homes are being put up in renovated lots. One of the workers falls into a pothole that opens up in a ground. When he slides down his friend asks him if he’s okay. Once he’s given the affirmative, the other man goes to get some rope. As the worker in the pothole is waiting he starts to notice something weird. There are beetles in the hole. They start to climb all over him, and he goes into a panic attack. Beetles climb into his ears and other orifices of his body. When the other worker finally returns with rope, he shines his flashlight down only to see the man is dead. The trapped man has blood streaming from his mouth and eyes.

The scene switches to Sam and Dean. Sam is reading the newspaper about a mysterious death that happened in the paper. When Dean comes out they have a brief chat about Dean’s ways of paying for their Hunting career. It consists of hustling people at pool and credit card scams. As they discuss their newest case, Sam mentions doctors are saying the man’s death was caused by mad cow disease.

Dean: Didn’t Oprah talk about that?

Sam: You watch Oprah?

Dean: (Uncomfortable silence)

So, apparently Dean Winchester watches Oprah. One aspect of this episode is that it can be a little much for the more sensitive viewers. It also has a few hilarious moments following by a not so subtle jab at humor. They show up at the new neighborhood being built and attend a barbecue. Sam and Dean get mistaken as a gay couple as they’re attending. As they go in Sam notices the son of one of the realtors has a tarantula. Sam talks to the son about father issues before the young man is dragged away.

As the two brothers are settling into an empty house one the female realtor goes to take a shower. As she’s bathing spiders start to come out of the pipes. She panics, and crashes out of her glass shower. A trail blood follows her before the camera shows her blank eyes. A few stray spiders crawling over her face.

Sam and Dean find her death suspicious. They sneak into the house where the death occurred. As their inspecting the area Dean goes to pick up a towel the woman had been wearing. It’s brief, but “spiders” fall out of the towel. If a person pauses the episode at this point, they’ll notice the “spiders” are of the plastic variety that clatters to the floor.

A little more investigating, with the help of the realtor’s son, they find out the insects have been acting strangely in the area. Dean ends up finding a skull in a mound of worms. They visit an Indian renovation and find out from an old Native American that there was a curse on the land. A long time ago a Native American tribe had lived on the land. At one point an army attacked the trip, and killed every man, woman, and child during the summer equinox. After this tragedy a curse was set on the land. That nature would rise up against any white man who tried to settle on the land again, and not leave them alive.

Sam and Dean rush all the way back to the neighborhood. They rush to the realtor’s house, and protect him from the flow of bugs attempting to kill the family. While they do eventually kill off the curse Sam ends up having some doubts. He tells Dean he wishes to find their father.

This episode is certainly not for anyone who doesn’t like the creepy crawlies. There are quite a few things of live bugs crawling around. There is even a scene of cockroaches erupting out of the dirt. The camera stays on the cockroaches for at least a decent thirty seconds before changing the scene. Another thing is that some viewers may feel a little sensitive when it comes to the Native American take on this episode.

On a side note, there are plenty of cases of hauntings that take place over disturbed Native American burial grounds. This is mostly due to the fact that no respect was given to the dead before renovations happened. It’s actually not that uncommon of an occurrence. The bones are disturbed, a new home is built, and there’s some shock when years later people find out they built their home accidentally over a graveyard.

All in all, episode eight is pretty decent. It has a few funny moments, and Sam deals with some issues concerning his father.